Letters to the editor, Nov. 6, 2012

Bamberger inspires those who stutter

In response to "Stutter doesn't hamper official" (Oct. 21 story), about Gov. Andrew Cuomo's communication director, Richard Bamberger, who had a severe stuttering problem and improved it with speech therapy:

I specialize in treating people who stutter and was pleased to see someone in that position reach his full potential and not let his stuttering hold him back. I also see people significantly improve with speech therapy in my practice. In spite of the hard work and effort, there remains no cure for stuttering at this time, but people are taught ways to manage their stuttering and not let it affect their lives.

Hats off to Bamberger as a positive example for people who stutter!

ENID HYMES

PITTSFORD

Bringing all troops home will create problems

A recent letter said we should bring all of our troops home and have them build bridges and highways. If that happens, what are the people who normally do that kind of work supposed to do?

Bringing all of the troops home creates two problems: It actually increases our unemployment and secondly opens a void in those parts of the world where our presence is a deterrent to actions by our foes. Just look at the Arab Spring results, where we went from bad to worse in a lot of countries and lost an ambassador in the process.

I don't have any answers to our nation's woes. I just think bringing all of the troops home at this time isn't the answer.

JOHN WESSELY

PITTSFORD

Bishops are justified in speaking out

A letter writer of Nov. 2 accused the bishops of the Catholic Church of bringing politics into their religion. It seems to me that politics have illegally invaded the churches of our country. It is the duty of the clergy to remind their parishioners of the teachings of the church.

The writer suggests that those who believe that contraceptive and sterilization services are wrong should not use them. I believe that those who think they are important should pay for them themselves.

MARY LOU REIFSNYDER

PERINTON

Politicians model bad behavior for the young

I will be so happy when Election Day is over. I cannot believe these people spend all this time digging up dirt on their opponents. Why don't they take the millions of dollars spent on ads and put it to good use - schools, homeless, etc.? I know it is money their campaign has raised and not government money, but it seems so useless to spend that much money bashing their opponents.

They say younger generations don't show respect for other people, property, country, etc. Who do they have to look up to? These politicians who are supposed to be running our government lower themselves by saying hateful things about each other. So if our government can act like this, why can't the kids? It's just disgusting. I've gotten so sick of seeing this constantly that I dislike all of them.

Why don't they run on their past record and stop these commercials? Play it straight and I think you would get more support from the community.

DORIS A. GRECO

LYONS, WAYNE COUNTY

Reader overlooked the true creators of demand

As a small business owner, I take exception to an Oct. 30 letter claiming that businesspeople don't create jobs. I live the reality, as do many of my fellow entrepreneurs - we hire people to help grow our businesses whenever we can manage to.

The letter-writer argues that consumer demand drives growth, but who does he think creates the demand? Apple has sold 100 million iPads and now employs 50,000 people in the United States. Who does the letter-writer think created the unprecedented demand for these products? Apple is the biggest company in the world because of great businesspeople creating incredible things that consumers want. And the same happens every day throughout the business world: Entrepreneurs invest (often risking everything) to create something, hire people to make it a reality, then hire more to make it grow.

Consumers, though precious and vital to our success, can't and don't create jobs for themselves.

MICHAEL HESS

PITTSFORD

Can we take the 'hydro' out of hydrofracking?

The trouble with hydrofracking is the "hydro." Take the water out of fracking and many of the health and environmental concerns go away. The energy industry has some of the best technical and engineering minds in the country. Can't they come up with a new method? Compressed air fracking? Laser fracking? How about sound wave fracking?

DENNIS VERCOLEN

BRIGHTON

Cheers to a generous Friendly's patron

We meet regularly for breakfast on Sundays at the Friendly's restaurant in Gates. We were quite surprised on Oct. 21, when our waitress informed us that our breakfast had been paid for by a young man who had sat across from us. He asked to remain anonymous so the waitress didn't tell us until he had already left.

Since we couldn't thank him in person, we would like to take this opportunity to offer our sincere thanks to him for his generosity. It certainly brightened our day.